I know alot of this comes down to my OB, but I'm trying to decide which hospital will be the most low stress option for a natural delivery. No induction, pain meds or pressure to labor in bed. Has anyone done a completely natural birth at either hospital? If so, how hard did you have to work to make it happen? Obviously, home or a birth center would be the best place for what I'm going for, but my husband just isn't comfortable with the idea for our first baby, and I need him to be comfortable to help me, so I'm working with what I've got! Any feedback you might have would be so appreciated!

We toured several and met with the midwives. He's just really not comfortable with it. The only issue with Mat Su is that my OB doesn't deliver there, and I'm very comfortable with her. Also, we live in Anchorage, about five minutes from both Providence and about eight minutes from Alaska Regional, so I'd really like to use one of them. I've got about ten weeks left, so I guess my best bet is to keep everything an option that I can, and keep researching. Thanks for the tip about Mat Su. :)

You're right, it really does come down to your OB/Midwife. I delivered at Providence both times with a Midwife. My experience was wonderful. I switched to a midwife when I was 36 weeks pg with my first. At my Bradly classes, I was advised to pull the standing orders for my OB at the hospital. The standing orders were horrifying to me. No eating, in bed the whole time, lots of stuff where the doctor was in charge and the Mom had to be quiet. Coupled with his high c-section rate over 38 weeks - because the baby is too big at that point - made the decision to switch easy.

With my first, my water broke and I never went into labor on my own. I was in the hospital during the time because the baby was technically early. But I got to try to get labor started for over 24 hours before pitocin was started. I labored forever before the baby was born. No pressure for anything that I didn't want.

I had a completely unmediated birth at providence in 2004. Granted we were a birth center transfer that arrived at 9+ cm and pushing. I didn't get any flack after the fact except from the neonatologist who thought we'd been attempting a home birth. Even if we had been it was inappropriate to share his strong opinions on the matter over the bed of my very, very sick newborn daughter.

I just had a scheduled c section at prov this week and received good care... Though the hospital experience left a bit to be desired (I was awake for over 40 hours straight due to lack of schedule coordination for various checks for myself and baby... Very frustrating!)

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